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American Morning

Israel Ends All Contacts with Palestinian Authority

Aired December 13, 2001 - 07:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Over the past several hours, dramatic new developments to talk about in the Middle East. After 10 civilians were killed in a terrorist attack on a bus, Israel ended all contacts with the Palestinian Authority, calling Yasser Arafat irrelevant. And then Israel began to retaliate.

A spokesman for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is calling the strikes an official declaration of war.

Our Chris Burns is monitoring the situation from Jerusalem -- Chris, what is the very latest from there today?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, those Israeli tanks are now rolling through and taking positions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, moving against what they say are suspected Palestinian militants and trying to round up their weapons.

This was a decision that was made overnight by the Israeli cabinet, calling Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat irrelevant and deciding to proceed on their own to crack down on the militants after the latest terrorist attack, the latest in a string of attacks. This latest one leaving 10 Israeli settlers dead in a bus that was ambushed in the West Bank.

Now, the Israelis continue to proceed with that. They have also sent in bulldozers to knock down a transmission tower, among other things. This, of course, being very systematic in muzzling or trying to silence and strike back at Yasser Arafat.

What does this do to the diplomatic process? U.S. Special Envoy Anthony Zinni is going ahead with a meeting with the Palestinian chief negotiator, Sayab Erekat (ph). The Americans continue to recognize Arafat as the leader of the Palestinians and they do hope to broker come kind of a cease-fire.

However, the terror attack, the Israeli air strikes overnight and the continued actions today don't bode very well for that effort -- Paula.

ZAHN: Chris, thanks so much for that update.

What is next, this morning we're going to be talking to both sides in the Mideast conflict. In the next hour, Israeli Counsel General Alon Pinkas will join me and then in our nine o'clock hour I'll be talking with Hasan Abdul Rahman. He is the chief Palestinian representative to the United States.

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